Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Ilya Martha Kessler - November 1, 1982

Before we talk about that I'd like to go back to...

Yeah, I make fast because...

No, it's...

Okay, you ask me what, because, uh....

Let me just go back and ask you a couple of things. Before the war, when you were living um, in the town in Czechoslovakia...

Yeah.

...um, your family. Did you live behind your store or what was your, your home like?

Oh yeah. That was a little... We had a house. In front of the house was uh, my father's store and back of, we had the kitchen and the rooms. That's ??? we lived there. So, my mother used to help for my father too, so the things like they were selling. They used to go like market. My father used to go like here, Eastern Market. And they used to go there every week, every two weeks uh, summertime more than wintertime. And my mother stayed with us, and my, my grandmother used to cook for us and used to do everything because my mother used to help with my father. So, we... You ask because I don't know what kind... what be important, you know.

It's all important, it really is.

Yeah.

Um, and what were your, your brothers' names? You said you had two younger brothers?

Yeah, two younger brothers. One was Andy and the other one name Emory.

Okay, and what was your maiden name?

Klein.

Okay, okay.

And my father was Abraham Klein.

And your mother's was?

Sarah. Shari. Sherry.

Okay. Um, and did you have any extended family that lived close by? Did you have aunts and uncles that lived in the same area?

Oh yeah. Everybody... Almost sixty--three or sixty--five families lived there, more than a half there was my family, yeah. They married from the same family and they lived there. So, all... So, this was like a big family.

Okay.